The systems thinking we introduced earlier in the chapter tells us that we need to develop and maintain a symbiotic relationship with our environment and nature more broadly. Integrated systems will not survive if one of the components is depleting another important component that contributes to the overall system. The industrial age of the 20th …
Complexity arises from the inter-relationship, inter-action and inter-connectivity of components within a system and between a system and its environment. However, we are not only concerned with complexity. We are also concerned with complexity that results in self-regulating, self-correcting and adaptive systems. For the purposes of MPI, we’re mostly concerned with the understanding of self-correcting, …
Before discussing natural systems such as humans and plants and animals we need to understand systems. A system is composed of interrelated parts or components that cooperate in some way. Natural systems include biological entities like humans, oceans, the climate, the solar system and ecosystems. Systems that have been artificially created include cars, software systems, …
The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible. – Albert Einstein Are we, humans, the apex of the universe? Is everything that you see really as it is? What is reality? Does this big picture depend on you? Do you have free will? What is the evidence for the Big Bang …
Philosophy and science are helpful when it comes to understanding happiness but we can also learn from the wisdom of humans that have spent decades on the planet, experienced many things and are coming face-to-face with their own death. This book starts at the end. Ultimately it all comes down to this. Unless you die …
MPI & Science Now that we have laid out the framework of the MPI philosophy we will test it against the available science. Happiness and money A frequently cited study (1.1) aimed at researching happiness was published in the 1978 in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Researchers compared the winners of the Illinois …
Shelter The immediate environment in which we live can have an enormous impact on our daily lives. Is it a safe place? Are you sharing the place with people that you like or don’t like? Is the energy in the house pleasant, stressful, positive, negative, etc? At one extreme it is just shelter. At the …
The self development that we discussed above does not just include learning, training, etc. It also includes relaxation, rejuvenation and all activities that contribute to making you a well-balanced and happy human. As I mentioned in the introduction, there is increasing scientific evidence indicating that humans will perform much better and feel happier when they …
As a result of the concept of relativity impacting how we recognize happiness (it can only feel good compared to something that feels bad) and the concept of equilibrium explaining why happiness is temporary (humans adapt to good and bad circumstances therefore happiness resulting from each “success in life” or pleasure stimulus fades over time) …
The amount of happiness that we feel and the frequency with which we feel it is obviously impacted by what happens to us and what we do to ourselves. However, humans are hardwired to adapt to their current situation and eventually form a new equilibrium around a “new normal”. If a human is put into …